Leading the charge of early morning eastbounds on the BNSF Chillicothe subdivision, BNSF 4099 has no problem making the heavy grade into the Illinois River valley with train BNSF Z PHXWSP7 01L in ... (more)

A thunderstorm and an eastbound freight train roll across the Illinois prairie on a gloomy late summer night. The signals here at Edelstein aren't long for the world, as crews are quickly working... (more)

An eastbound BNSF Z train meets a westbound unit autorack train at the top of the grade of Edelstein Hill on the former ATSF Chillicothe Sub. The searchlight signals at this location still stand t... (more)

A pair of BNSF GE's lead a westbound stack train under the Santa Fe searchlight signal bridges at Edelstein on a muggy evening in central Illinois.

A DPU set brings up the rear of a westbound at Edelstein, IL as a storm starts to creep into the area.

A low hanging layer of fog has settled in on the northern Illinois prairie as a green signal is displayed for a westbound on BNSF's Chillicothe Subdivision. These searchlights date back to the day... (more)

Pulling with all their might, 22,000 horses come over the top of the most formidable mainline grade in the state of Illinois known as Edelstein Hill.

Union Pacific's Chicago and NorthWestern (C&NW) heritage unit leads the City of Industry, Calif., to Global 4 (Joliet, Ill.) trackage rights Z-Train (ZCIG4) through the control point of Edelstein ... (more)

A UP stack train utilizing trackage rights over the BNSF Transcon passes under the Santa Fe era searchlight signals at Edelstein Illinois.

Its a busy morning on the transcon in Central Illinois as a long Z heads west with some DP's pushing while 2 eastbounds wait their turn to get through the plant due to single tracking in Chillicot... (more)

A quick sucker hole in the building cloud cover allows the sun to shine through and illuminate westbound local freight L-CHI1021 16I as it works its way through the quaint community of Edelstein a... (more)

29 minutes after sunrise, two hot shot Z trains meet between the Santa Fe era signal bridges at Edelstein.

An ex-BN locomotive leads the weekend Galesburg to Chicago local under the Santa Fe signal bridge at Edelstein.

Amtrak #836 leads the Southwest Chief thru Houlihan's Curve in the fading light of a beautiful Summer's day. Amtrak no longer uses this line except for the occasional detour.

Time marches on, the calendar turns to another year, but I was pleased to find a solid train of piggyback trailers passing underneath the venerable Santa Fe signals at Edelstein in 2016.